


Meditation

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 16:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10834896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: The title says it all





	Meditation

**Author's Note:**

> Witten for the SenTh prompt 'quiet time'

Meditation

by  Bluewolf

Naomi had always called meditating her 'quiet time', and encouraged Blair to think of it in the same way. Not that he really understood the concept, when he was growing up.

Because when he was very young, it was what she desperately needed - a 'quiet time' when Blair wasn't running around, restlessly exploring everything, and to keep him safe she had to chase after him.

Blair himself didn't see any need for being quiet. After all, how could he learn anything new if he wasn't exploring? Asking questions?

Naomi did manage to persuade him that meditating was a way of exploring and understanding things he had seen, things that he had learned. She admitted to herself that that was an over-simplification, but it would give an inquisitive five-year-old a reason to sit, quietly thinking about something.

She visited communes once or twice, and discovered that even there children as young as Blair weren't encouraged to meditate - most of the adults seemed to think that it was something they would accept, and automatically do, as they got older - but she needed, desperately needed, that 'quiet time'. That hour - sometimes more - when she could live inside her own mind and forget the problems of the outside world.

Oh, she had no problem joining protests, discussing with others what she - and they - saw as the 'wrongs' of society - but, especially after one of the more active protests, one of the more outspoken discussions, she really, really needed that 'quiet time', that retreat from reality, when she lived in the 'perfect world' of her own mind.

Blair finally learned the value of quiet once he learned to read well enough to consider non-fiction books of more interest than fiction, and spent time in libraries. People speaking interfered with his train of thought, because he was considering the meaning of what he read as he read.

Time spent in the library replaced time spent in what Naomi called meditation.

He was ten.

Then, when he was sixteen, he went to Rainier, and for the first time in his life found himself mixing with other people who were, at least roughly, in his age group. At Rainier, he quickly learned that if he was to be accepted by his fellow students, he would have to adopt a seriously outgoing attitude; that where a child was expected to be seen and not heard, a student who was seen but not heard would not be accepted by his fellow students.

And so he adopted an outgoing attitude; and in the late evenings, in the solitude of his bedroom, he returned to spending time meditating.

Because, he discovered, he really needed some 'quiet time'.


End file.
